Numbers 15,1. “Korach, son of Yitzhar, son of Kehat, son of ‎Levi, and Datan and Aviram took, etc;”[At ‎this point there appears to me to be a major error in our editions ‎when the author claims that Nachmanides wrote that the spies ‎had been aware that the Israelites would not enter the Holy Land. ‎According to my understanding of Nachmanides on 15,1 he refers ‎to the people having been aware of this decree, seeing that the ‎spies were dead already. Ed.]Nachmanides writes ‎that seeing that the (spies) people knew that the members of ‎their generation would not enter the Holy Land, the Israelites’ ‎love of Moses had already been undermined so that the people ‎would be more receptive to criticism of him. This is also the ‎reason why this episode was written in the Torah immediately ‎following the story of the spies. There had been several instances ‎since the sin of the golden calf when many people had died ‎without Moses having been able to prevent this, so that Korach ‎felt that an attempt at insurrection could meet with broad ‎support.‎Basically speaking, the generation of the Israelites who had ‎left Egypt as adults was of a spiritual level that enabled them to ‎perform the commandments by merely using their power of ‎speech, i.e. prayer alone. The next generation was of a lower ‎spiritual level, requiring action in addition to prayer.‎‎[Presumably the difference of the spiritual level of ‎these two generations was due to the older generation having ‎been addressed by G’d directly at the revelation on Mount Sinai. ‎Ed.] The author cites as proof of this distinction the fact ‎that Joshua when battling the 31 kings of the land of Canaan, had ‎to perform some action with the javelin signaling to the ambush ‎‎(Joshua 8,19) in order to secure victory. Moses, on the other ‎hand, did not have to perform such actions, but accomplished his ‎task by utterances emanating from his mouth alone. If you were ‎to argue that Joshua conquered Jericho relying only on ‎דבור‎, the ‎power of speech, as pointed out in the Jerusalem Talmud Moed ‎katan chapter 2 halachah 4, the reason for this was that ‎Jericho was captured on the Sabbath, and the Ari’zal has ‎pointed out already that the intellectual capacity of the Rabbi on ‎a weekday is attained by his disciple on the Sabbath. Similarly, the ‎relationship between Moses’ intellectual capacity and that of ‎Joshua was like that of the teacher compared to the student. ‎Moses had been able to accomplish everything he set out to do by ‎relying exclusively on the power of the word. [Perhaps ‎Moses’ failing to speak to the rock when commanded to and ‎striking it instead, represented this desecration of G’d’s name in ‎public that G’d accused both him and Aaron of. Ed.]‎Both at Ai as well as during subsequent battles, Joshua had to ‎employ other parts of his body in addition to the power of ‎speech.‎The Torah Moses presented to the Jewish people reflected the ‎power of the word used by G’d when He created the universe; ‎however, in common with other forms of energy emanating from ‎G’d’s essence which had to be “screened” in order that their ‎impact would not prove harmful instead of beneficial, even in our ‎world of the ‎עשיה‎, where matter appears as if it is “real,” this is so ‎only because what we see with our three-dimensionally oriented ‎eyes has already undergone such a process of being screened ‎before we see it. According to our author this has been alluded to ‎when the prophet Isaiah 44,6 quoted G’d saying: ‎אני ראשון ואני ‏אחרון‎, “I am no different at the end from the way I was at the ‎beginning.” [The usual translation, is, of course: “I am first and I ‎am last,” but I changed it to fit the author’s interpretation. Ed.]‎G’d meant that if He employed “screens” to protect us from ‎His outpouring of Divine energy at the beginning of creation, He ‎did the same when He came to the final stage of His creative ‎activity, i.e. earth and man. The form that these “screens” take in ‎our material world is the attributes through which we try to ‎understand the nature of the Creator, His ‎מידות‎.When Korach ‎had realized that the generation of which he was a part would not ‎be granted residence in the land of Canaan, he no longer accepted ‎Moses’ Torah as something to be understood as having been ‎‎“screened” by G’d before He entrusted it to us in the format that ‎we are familiar with.When G’d punished Korach by making ‎the earth open its “mouth” to swallow him and his followers ‎alive, He actually paid him back ‎מידה כנגד מידה‎, “tit for tat,” seeing ‎that Korach had refused to believe that the earth as we see it is ‎not the “real thing;” he was taught at the last moment of his life ‎how wrong he had been, and that the earth had hidden ‎dimensions he had never dreamed of.This has all been hinted ‎at when the Torah listed as Korach’s antecedents, i.e. Yitzhar-‎alluding to brightness, light, Kehat- and Levi. The word ‎יקהת‎ ‎alludes to “unity” as we know from Genesis 49,10 where Yaakov ‎blessed Yehudah by saying that the other tribes would rally ‎around him. The word ‎לוי‎ derived from ‎ילוה‎, when his mother ‎Leah, at his birth, expressed her hope that this son would be the ‎cause of her husband spending more time with her; (Genesis ‎‎29,34) When looking at the three names together, they suggest ‎that Korach only believed in the world of the power of speech, ‎the world that we know as the three-dimensional world, and ‎could not believe that behind what we see with our physical eyes ‎there is hidden another dimension, one which makes it far easier ‎to relate to the home of the Creator and the army of angels with ‎whom He has surrounded Himself. [some of these words ‎are mine. When someone insists on believing that the world we ‎see is all there is in the universe, so that physical death is the end ‎of all life, he has made the beginning of life equally irrelevant. ‎Ed.]‎The words of Isaiah 44,6 are therefore most important if we ‎wish to understand G’d’s actions in creating different sections in ‎His universe.‎

Another way of understanding the opening words of our ‎portion. There are some tzaddikim who, in their effort to ‎serve their Creator, are concerned solely with providing their ‎Creator with a feeling of satisfaction and pleasure. It does not ‎matter to such a tzaddik if others worship G’d with a similar ‎purpose in mind or not. If someone, however, serves the Creator ‎with a view to being rewarded for this at some future time, it ‎matters to him that it was he, and not someone else who had ‎provided G’d with this pleasure. When the opening words in our ‎portion are ‎ויקח קרח‎, “Korach took (credit),” this means that he ‎was concerned with being the only one to receive credit for his ‎actions. This is what Rashi had in mind when he commented on ‎these words, saying: ‎שלקח מקח רע לעצמו‎, “he made a bad bargain ‎for himself;” his urge to be appointed as High Priest, i.e. serving ‎the Lord for ulterior motives, though commendable on the ‎surface, was the beginning of his undoing. [I have not ‎been able to find where Rashi is supposed to have made the ‎comment quoted by the author. Ed.]‎

In his comment on the words ‎ודתן ואבירם‎, Rashi adds ‎that whereas these members of the tribe of Reuven had been ‎angry that their tribe had not been accorded the privileges due to ‎the first born, i.e. their founding father Reuven, Korach was ‎angry at not having been appointed as the leader of Kehatites, ‎rather than Elitzafan ben Uzziel whom Moses had appointed at ‎G’d’s instruction. (Compare Numbers 3,30). Rashi explains ‎that Korach felt slighted, feeling that since he was the first born ‎son of Yitzhar who was the second son of Amram, this position ‎was rightfully his, seeing that Elitzafan son of Uzziel was the son ‎of someone junior to his father.‎Our author wonders that if Korach’s dissatisfaction had dated ‎back to these appointments described by the Torah in the third ‎chapter of Parshat Bamidbar, why had he not complained at ‎that time?Our author answers this by reminding us that at ‎that time, before the episode with the spies, when it was assumed ‎by the people that they would all enter the Holy Land and secure ‎their ancestral heritage there, the position of tribal head or even ‎that of head of one of the three sections of the Levites, would ‎prove to have been a very temporary position, as entry into the ‎land of Israel was expected to take place within less than a year. ‎Now that they were condemned to spend 40 years wandering in ‎the desert this position carried with it far more importance. ‎Korach’s jealousy therefore had been aroused at this time.‎

‎ Numbers 16,5. Come morning, the Lord will make ‎known who is His and who is holy, whom He has granted ‎access to Himself. Him whom He will choose He will bring ‎close to Him.‎‏"‏‎ We need to understand why, in the first ‎half of the words Moses (G’d) speaks of “whom He had brought ‎close to Himself” in the past tense, whereas immediately ‎afterwards, “He will bring close to Himself” he changes to future ‎tense. This verse contains an allusion to the proper manner in ‎which to serve Hashem.The subject is discussed in ‎‎Rosh Hashanah, chapter 2, mishnah 7 where the ‎‎mishnahreports that after the court had examined the ‎witnesses who reported having seen the new moon and their ‎testimony had been validated, the court proclaimed: ‎מקודש‎, “the ‎new month has been sanctified.” The people present‏ ‏then ‎repeated the declaration of the court saying twice: ‎מקודש מקודש‎. ‎Why did the head of the court say the word ‎מקודש‎ only once, ‎whereas the people were required to say it twice?We have a general rule that when someone wishes to engage ‎in service of the Lord, he has to distance himself first from any ‎sins he had been guilty of, i.e. take his leave from a lifestyle that ‎opposes G’d will, before he can be enrolled in the class of people ‎actively serving the Lord, i.e. by performing His will. This will be a ‎process that intensifies gradually. During every step of the way, ‎the person who has left behind him a sinful lifestyle must be on ‎his guard to serve the Lord by studying Torah, praying, and by ‎sanctifying His name in various ways through his dealings with ‎his fellow man, causing Him continuous pleasure when observing ‎him. When keeping this in mind we can interpret the text of the ‎‎Mishnah as follows: when the head of the court proclaimed ‎the word ‎מקודש‎, he thereby indicated that the separation from a ‎negative lifestyle had been accomplished. When the people ‎responded by saying the same word twice, they indicated that ‎they were on the way to serving the Lord, reminding themselves ‎at each stage how they were supposed to do this, i.e. that they ‎needed both to keep distance from sin, and at the same time to ‎maintain their awe of the Almighty, never to become too familiar ‎with Him in the sense that they would permit themselves the ‎kind of familiarities one does when in the company of mortal ‎human beings. Moses refers to this when saying: ‎ואת הקדוש‎, ‎meaning that once one has attained this level of holiness one ‎must remember with Whom one consorts. This person described ‎as ‎הקדוש‎ in the verse above, is one who had already attained a ‎certain level of sanctity, ‎קדושה‎ by his own efforts, and was no ‎longer in need of being led by the hand all the time. (as ‎‎Rashi explains in Parshat Noach on the words: ‎את ‏האלוקים התהלך נח‎, “Noach walked with G’d.”) (Genesis 6,9) When ‎describing Avraham’s level of proximity to G’d the Torah (wrote ‎Genesis 17,15) ‎התהלך לפני‎, “strive to walk ahead of Me!”‎When Moses (G’d) added ‎ואת אשר יבחר בו‎, “and Whom He will ‎select,” he indicated that the person concerned would require ‎further support from the Almighty to lead him to his desired ‎destination in his relations with G’d. The words ‎יקריב אותו‎ are the ‎assurance by G’d that He would help that person along his chosen ‎path to enable him to serve Him with a sincere heart.‎

The reason why Datan and Aviram added a complaint against ‎Moses that Korach had not mentioned, when they said: “you also ‎did not bring us to a land of milk and honey,” (Numbers 16,13) was that ‎Korach was a member of the tribe of Levi that had not been ‎condemned to die in the desert. Korach therefore could not have ‎leveled this accusation at Moses. [According to a view expressed ‎in Baba batra 121. Ed.]‎

Numbers 16,15. “I have not taken a single donkey of ‎theirs nor I have I knowingly wronged anyone of them.” ‎‎[The author considers the plain meaning of this verse as ‎unnecessary, the mere suggestion that Moses had taken ‎advantage of any Israelite being too obnoxious to warrant ‎mention. Ed.]‎The general rule is that that Moses constantly tried to ‎spiritually uplift the people of Israel and to thereby bring them ‎closer to him. He states here that this endeavour of his included ‎every single one of the Israelites. He did not elevate a single ‎Israelite at the expense of others whom he did not elevate. ‎Similarly, when trying to be close to the people, he did not favour ‎any Israelite at the expense of another Israelite about whom he ‎supposedly cared less. According to our author, the word ‎הרעותי‎ ‎in this verse is presumed to be derived from ‎רעי‎, “my friend.”‎

Numbers 16,28. “none of it was of my own ‎devising.” These words of Moses help us understand 17,8 ‎where the survivors accuse Moses and Aaron as having ‎engineered the death of “G’d’s people.” We have a rule that the ‎‎tzaddik, by means of his prayers, can bring about events ‎that had not previously been decreed by G’d to happen. On the ‎other hand, perhaps more frequently, the tzaddik’s prayer ‎is the catalyst that sets in motion the execution of a Divine ‎decree whose time had not previously been ripe for execution. In ‎this instance, the Israelites who had watched Korach and the ‎other rebels descend to their death, suspected Moses of having ‎been the instigators of the death of these people through their ‎prayers. In our verse, Moses wants to make clear that what is ‎going to happen is not something that he had either instigated or ‎hoped for. G’d Himself, without any contribution by himself or ‎Aaron, had both decreed and executed it.‎

Numbers 18,7. “I make your priesthood a service that ‎is presented as a gift.”When man serves the Lord this ‎is not a gift to G’d, as he is obligated to do so from the moment he ‎has been born. When man, in the process of serving the Lord, ‎tries to elevate other creatures spiritually at the same time, this ‎does constitute a gift he presents to the Lord.‎When the Talmud in Shabbat 31 describes that the first ‎question the soul is asked when appearing before the heavenly ‎tribunal is: ‎נשאת ונתת באמונה‎, commonly translated as “have you ‎been fair and honest in your dealings with your fellow man,?” the ‎real meaning is: ”when you engaged in business dealings with ‎gentiles and you benefited financially by these dealings, did you ‎use the opportunity of displaying fairness as an opportunity to ‎bring the gentile closer to G’d the Creator?” If you did so you ‎succeeded in rescuing these “sparks” that had strayed from their ‎original path since they had been encased in a body. The word ‎נשאת‎ from the root ‎נשא‎ to raise, elevate,” in the line we quoted ‎from the Talmud, refers to whether the Jew whose soul now ‎appears for judgment in the celestial spheres being asked whether ‎it had been instrumental in helping stray human beings to return ‎to their sacred origins. When the Israelite, be he a priest or not, ‎succeeds in bringing about conversion of pagans for the right ‎reasons, he can claim to have presented his G’d with a gift, ‎מתנה‎.‎

Numbers 18,19. “it is an eternal, salt-like, covenant ‎before Hashem.”This statement had become necessary ‎after the revolt of Korach, who claimed that all Israelites are ‎entitled to be priests by dint of all of them having stood at Mount ‎Sinai. Korach had considered his status as a Levi, as a demotion. ‎He had not understood that the priests symbolise the attribute of ‎חסד‎ loving kindness, whereas the Levites symbolize the attribute ‎of ‎דין‎, justice. If both the Levites and the priests had symbolized ‎loving kindness, there would have been no room in the world for ‎the attribute of justice. G’d’s universe can function only when ‎both these attributes perform their respective ‎functions.Nachmanides, commenting on the significance of ‎מלח‎, salt, writes that salt is a combination of the raw materials ‎fire and water, i.e. justice and loving kindness. Between them ‎these two “raw materials” are the foundation of our civilisation. ‎This concept had to be brought to the attention not only of the ‎Levites, but to the attention of all the Israelites, so that they ‎would understand that both the role of the Levite and the role of ‎the priest are indispensable to the Jewish nation, and are not to ‎be regarded as part of a pyramid, the priests representing the ‎pinnacle.‎